TAKE ACTION AND DEFEND HUMAN RIGHTS

After a 6-year legal struggle in Canada, in May 2018 the Court of Appeal for Ontario ruled against UDAPT, the victims of Chevron-Texaco contamination, on the basis of mistaken assumptions.

In order to be able to challenge this ruling before the Supreme Court of Canada, the Court of Appeal of Ontario ordered the UDAPT Plaintiffs to pay CAD $350,000 (roughly 230.000 euro) in under one month!

The Union of People Affected by Texaco’s Oil Operations (UDAPT), representing 30,000 victims of oil contamination in the Ecuadorian Amazon area, caused by the oil giant Chevron-Texaco, have been ordered to pay court costs in the amount of CAD $350,000 and in under one month to continue their struggle for justice.

This is justice turned upside down!

In 2013, the Ecuador National Court ordered Chevron to pay 9.5 billion US dollars to clean up the 480,000 hectares of polluted Amazon rainforest and to set up a large health program, thereby confirming two previous verdicts of Ecuadorian provincial courts in 2011 and 2012.

The contamination was arising due to inappropriate and outdated oil extraction methods between 1964 and 1990, including deliberate dumping of toxic waste and crude oil in the jungle area. As a result, land, water, and the whole ecosystem are extensively polluted and damaged. Local communities have been suffering from severe diseases, even leading to their (premature) deaths.

Despite previously agreeing to abide by Ecuadorian courts’ rulings, Chevron refuses to pay. Furthermore, Chevron has stripped all its financial assets in Ecuador in the meantime. The oil giant even promised the victims ‘a lifetime of lawsuits’.

For this reason, UDAPT victims, as Plaintiffs in lawsuits, have been seeking to enforce the verdict in other countries where the oil multinational company currently does hold assets. This international legal fight is aimed at collecting the legitimate financial compensation that will make it possible to clean up the polluted area and restore the Amazon rainforest.

Your actions could help bring justice to the people affected by oil contamination.